GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) vs GeForce GTX 650

Intro

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) comes with a GPU core clock speed of 650 MHz, and the 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM is set to run at 970 MHz through a 256-bit bus. It also is comprised of 128 Stream Processors, 64 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Compare all that to the GeForce GTX 650, which features GPU clock speed of 1058 MHz, and 2048 MB of GDDR5 memory running at 1250 MHz through a 128-bit bus. It also is made up of 384 SPUs, 32 TAUs, and 16 Raster Operation Units.

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

Memory Bandwidth

Performance-wise, the GeForce GTX 650 should theoretically be much superior to the GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) overall. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650

80000 MB/sec

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)

62080 MB/sec

Difference: 17920 (29%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) will be much (approximately 23%) faster with regards to anisotropic filtering than the GeForce GTX 650. (explain)

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)

41600 Mtexels/sec

GeForce GTX 650

33856 Mtexels/sec

Difference: 7744 (23%)

Pixel Rate

If running with a high screen resolution is important to you, then the GeForce GTX 650 is the winner, by a large margin. (explain)

GeForce GTX 650

16928 Mpixels/sec

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)

10400 Mpixels/sec

Difference: 6528 (63%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

GeForce 8800 GTS (G92)

Amazon.com

GeForce GTX 650

Amazon.com

Please note that the price comparisons are based on search keywords - sometimes it might show cards with very similar names that are not exactly the same as the one chosen in the comparison. We do try to filter out the wrong results as best we can, though.

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the bus width by its memory speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x.
The higher the bandwidth is, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This number is worked out by multiplying the total number of texture units of the card by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher the texel rate, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the graphics card can possibly write to its local memory in a second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is worked out by multiplying the amount of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the card's clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - sometimes also referred to as Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen.
The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.